Uk Physicians Call For Boycott Of Israeli Medical Association

Scots doctors line patients’ stomachs with ‘faecal transplant’ in bid to save them from c diff superbug

(Khaleel Reash/ MaanImages ) 130 UK Physicians Call for a Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) and its expulsion from the World Medical Association (WMA) In a letter appearing in the Guardian on 21 April 2007, prominent UK physicians have called for a boycott of the IMA and its expulsion from the WMA. The letterfollows: Persistent violations of medical ethics have accompanied Israels occupation. The Israeli Defence Force has systematically flouted the fourth Geneva convention guaranteeing a civilian population unfettered access to medical services and immunity for medical staff. Ambulances are fired on (hundreds of cases) and their personnel killed. Desperately ill people, and newborn babies, die at checkpoints because soldiers bar the way to hospital. The public-health infrastructure, including water and electricity supplies, is wilfully bombed, and the passage of essential medicines like anti-cancerdrugs and kidney dialysis fluids blocked. In the West Bank, the apartheid wall has destroyed any coherence in the primary health system. UN rapporteurs have described Gaza as a humanitarian catastrophe, with 25 percent of children clinicallymalnourished. The Israeli Medical Association has a duty to protest about war crimes of this kind, but has refused to do so. Appeals to the World Medical Association and the British Medical Association have also been rebuffed. Eighteen leading Palestinian health organisations have appealled to fellow professionals abroad to recognise how the IMA has forfeited its right to membership of the international medical community. We are calling for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association and its expulsion from the WMA. There is a precedent for this: the expulsion of the Medical Association of South Africa during the apartheid era. A boycott is an ethical and moral imperative when conventional channels do not function, for otherwise we are merely turningaway. Dr Derek Summerfield, Professor Colin Green, Dr Ghada Karmi, Dr David Halpin, Dr Pauline Cutting and 125 otherdoctors RelatedLinks

But they insist its safe and highly effective. In fact, its been such a success that the NHS has changed its guidance to medics to make sure its used as much as possible. Clostridium difficile kills 150 Scots per year and blights the lives of many others. Around 1700 people caught the gastric bug last year, and it can be highly resistant to antibiotics. And although its not for the squeamish, doctors believe the faecal transplant treatment is the way forward. A tube is put into the patients nose and used to place a very small amount of poo from a member of their family into their stomach. Once there, it re-populates the patients gut with healthy bacteria, which grow and spread and drive out the c diff bugs. Germ expert Professor Alistair Leanord, who chaired the group of experts who came up with the idea, said: There have been a lot of studies showing this is an effective treatment and its quite simple. It can be lifesaving. The issue has been with patients accepting the idea. But to be fair, they are at the far end of severe. They are willing to anything that will give them their life and their bowels back. We do have standard antibiotic treatment.